


Through an Aquarium

by Lady_Amarant



Series: O You Sinners [4]
Category: Slayers (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-17
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-13 12:01:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2150010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Amarant/pseuds/Lady_Amarant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another of the Demon Lords has an offer, and it's not one Zelgadis wishes to take.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Through an Aquarium

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize in advance to anyone who gets the Daft Punk and Tales of Graces references.

He would have to go back to town some time. Supplies were running low, rumors were running thin, and an unnatural hunger started running through his veins again. Zelgadis shook his head, trying to dislodge that thought. He wasn’t feeling that hunger. He wasn’t feeling a demonic need, the blood of a Shard of Shabranigdu, of Rezo the Red Priest filtered through generations then melded with a brau demon’s hunger. Xellos had to have been lying, to make him think he belonged with them. It wouldn’t be the first time falsehoods fell from his lips.

The demon lashed within his prison of human and golem, making his teeth grit. He had been better than ever. Faster. Stronger. It seemed like a perfect trade off, but- this needed to stop. If he found his cure, it would. He would get rid of this need, this need to devour pain and fear, and he’d be human again.

However human he really was.

Zelgadis frowned at the thought. He had been human. No matter what, he had been human. Whatever power had been locked away because of what had been sealed in Rezo and passed down through generations didn’t affect his humanity.

With a sigh, he started back to town. Lastalia was at least big enough that he didn’t feel worried he would be run out soon, but small enough... his hands clenched at the memory of the low buzz of fear he had felt as he had walked through the first time. He hadn’t stopped there for the night, head too full of questions after what Xellos had done for him to be around more emotions pressing into him.

Speaking of things pressing into him. Zelgadis stopped, feeling the weight of a gaze. He couldn’t see anyone, but that meant nothing. They could be hiding, using a spell to cloak themselves-

Or not be human. A chill ran through him as he realized he couldn’t feel the intent of the stare. He couldn’t feel any emotion behind it. Even if it had been a beast-person, he should have- Mazoku. It had to be. Zelgadis turned, trying to figure out where it was coming from. It had to be on this plane, right? If the Mazoku was watching from the Astral plane, he shouldn’t have felt it. There was nothing in the trees, nothing around him, nothing able to hide in the small splash of water-

Wait. It hadn’t rained in weeks. When had a puddle gotten there? Zelgadis pulled a hand back, readying an Elmekia Lance as a green scaled woman pulled herself out, long ears ending in fins. Her eyes speared him, unnatural sea colored and slit demonically. She took one step towards him, the puddle disappearing as she moved away. Just as he took a breath to speak the spell, she sank to her knees in supplication.

”The chimera that holds Shabranigdu’s blood,” she murmured, her voice in deference to the Dark Lord she served. “I bring a request from my Lady, Deep Sea Dolphin.”

Zelgadis’s hand fell by his side, a growl rising to his throat. So Xellos was correct. More offers. “And what would that be?”

”Set aside your alliance with the Greater Beast, Zelas Metallium, and join us.”

”I don’t have an alliance with the Beastmaster,” he snapped out, watching her head lift in surprise. “And I don’t work for Mazoku. No matter what nice things you throw at me.”

Her eyes narrowed. She wasn’t an incredibly powerful Mazoku - not the General or Priest, just a messenger, that was certain - but Zelgadis had a feeling she might be strong enough to resist anything lower than a Ra Tilt. “Your interactions with her General-Priest says differently,” came the cool response. “We only ask that you use that blood within you when we are in dire need. In return we will give you what you require. It’s been said you’ve been looking to return your appearance to a more human one?”

His cure. Instead of engaging in the double talk Xellos would, this messenger outright stated it. It was so close, within his fingers, and all he would have to do- “What kind of need?” he asked cautiously.

”You and Lina Inverse are acquaintances, correct? It would be easy for you to steer her away from my Lady to keep her safe, or if needed, slay her for her good.” Her head tilted ever so slightly, her eyes not blinking.

Lina. At one time, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Anything, anything at all, for that cure. But since meeting her, fighting alongside her- her, Gourry, Amelia, even Filia, he couldn’t do it. The human that still resided in him screamed at the idea of allying himself with the Mazoku to kill his friends for a cure that might not even exist, that might just be a lie so they could use the stupid human. “And do you think I’m going to fall for that?” The growl almost took him by surprise as she stood, his hand clenching as he started to ready a spell to throw her off balance. “You almost had it. Dangle my cure in front of me, make it everything I wanted. But you pushed too far when you asked me to kill my friend.”

Her hand moved slightly, a spike of ice racing for him before he could speak his spell. It took nothing to roll out of the way, but a hiss of annoyance escaped his lips. She was too fast. Not that powerful - she didn’t have power behind that. But she could move quickly. More ice surrounded him, forcing him to jump up. “Elmekia Lance!” he finally shot out, hands aimed towards her. It hit her solid, causing a cry of pain and for her to stumble back...

And grin at him. Damn. He had been right. She was too fast to chant a Ra Tilt, though. If he could just have a moment-! Before he could blink, another wall of ice came at him. His hands came up, not sure he could cast the spell on time. Just anything. Anything to slow her down. Zelgadis reached inside him for anything to work, and felt the demon roar, escaping his grasp easily. It boiled over, his skin bristling with red and black energy as the ice stopped, crackling in deadly points before breaking into fine mist.

That. For the moment, he could use it. Just enough to save him. Zelgadis held a hand out, surprised as the energy gathered quickly. Too quickly, too strongly. He could try to control it, try to aim it at the Mazoku starting to backpedal, starting to escape into the Astral plane. Just fire it off, he told himself.

Except he couldn’t. It kept feeding on itself, growing, enveloping him and everything in its path. For a moment, fear ran through him as memory of Lina’s Giga Slave came to mind. She had been able to cast a perfect version of that spell, but the one time against the Hellmaster she had summoned the Lord of Nightmares... was he about to do the same? Could he possibly call Shabranigdu where he was by using this power? It looped around itself, feeding off the remains of the boost he had gotten from Xellos having him feed the demon so deeply. The energy engulfed him, spreading too quickly. Finally, Zelgadis could feel it wavering, nearing the end of its limits. It flickered. Nearly broke.

Then roared back to life as something hit him. Something as glorious as the pleasure rolling across his body, as a hand between his legs making him gasp and want. Zelgadis felt his eyes rolling back in his head as it filled him, the hunger in him greedily slurping it down.

But it burnt out quickly, disappearing suddenly before it could meld the same way the ecstasy could. He fell to one knee, barely noting the sudden crunch of dead ground under him as he tried to catch his breath. Blood dripped down past his eye, and he touched it warily. A stone had ripped halfway free of his skin in that, but he had mostly been protected from his own spell. The Mazoku- he couldn’t tell. If she had gotten caught in the blast, she had been destroyed. It was possible she had escaped, but... he couldn’t feel the echo he had felt when Xellos slipped into the Astral plane. The thought disturbed him, that the power he had been feeding had destroyed so easily.

With that thought, he stood shakily. He should just get back to town. Back to Lastalia, and clean up. He could worry about what happened later. Death crunched under his feet as he moved, a disturbing symphony of the land echoing in his ears. It stretched for further and further than he wanted, trees now splinters around him and grass crunching with each step. Soon, it should stop, and he should find the town, and a bed, and-

No. Zelgadis stopped as it hit him. These weren’t splintered trees. That, over there- he made his way over, a sick feeling rising. Dirt over white, long... human bone. Once he saw the one, he couldn’t stop seeing them, littered all over. And the wood around fell in a pattern, and stone, and metal-

Lastalia.

It was the only town in this direction. His muscles started trembling as he bowed his head. It spilled over his chest, bubbling up his throat, and escaped in a disbelieving chuckle. His head tilted back as the laugh grew and burbled wildly. He had done that with something he had inside him at all times. Something he had locked away since birth due to being related to someone who housed Shabranigdu.

What kind of monster had he always been?

**Author's Note:**

> _”Good luck,” said the nightmare_
> 
> -Eliza Rickman, “Through an Aquarium,” _O You Sinners_


End file.
